The Oil and Gas Deep Water Drilling Debate

Today the New York Post had a breaking news event whereas tomorrow October 12th they will be announcing a lift on the moratorium that Washington put in place from the oil spill that took place in the GOM back April of this year 2010. During a discussion, I came across numerous people that spoke out against deep water drilling. Now I for one am not a drilling expert nor am I an engineer and I will not claim to know anything or everything about oil well drilling and the effect it has on our environment, however I did give my thoughts in relations to how and what I believe since the O&G industry has been around in my life since I can remember. After working on oilrigs and for service companies for over 17 years I may not be an expert, but I feel I definitely have some knowledge on how things operate. I responded with not a favorable response against many that were on the opposite side of the fence.

I will not ever change my thoughts about drilling. I grew up with it all around me. I know the pros and cons behind it. Not always good, but my argument will always be for those who dislikes it but those same ones are not doing anything different when they drive up to the pump and fill their vehicles. I have grown up around alternative fuels also. Sugar Cane, Corn Mills, it's no different when it comes to mess and cleanups, just on land and requires refineries and it takes chemicals to break it down. Again, an added argument is we can continue buying foreign oil. US brings in over 10 million barrels of oil from Saudi Aramco "daily" and that is a lot of oil. It is used in mostly everything we use today from plastics to over the counter meds things that have petroleum distillates processed in it.

One thing I didn’t bring up in the conversation is how has the O&G helped our lives? Just as those that are proponents against the space program. What have we learned from this program that has bettered our lives? In a previous post I talked about nostalgia, something that is merely the past of something that could help our future. Well as I see it the space program we learned a lot about technology. Things we use everyday. The same goes for oil. Many things are derived from oil and it has made our lives more prosperous today.

Therefore, for me to argue that the O&G industry is not a worthy business would be foolish and is no different from coal miners arguing their positions and shrimpers on boats arguing their positions. I totally support the O&G industry and "totally" agree with tighter safety rules that "MUST" be followed. Nevertheless, we need to keep more work here instead of purchasing from abroad when it comes to fuels. We have the ability, the knowledge and the know how to meet our own needs without other's benefiting from our dollars that definitely hurts our well-being and adds to our economic breakdown. We have been doing it for the last century and there will always be accidents. That is no different than a bridge giving away in Los Angeles or a volcano blowing acid into the atmosphere, there will always be disasters, but just as humanly possible we need to be more aware using more precautionary measures.

People in Florida complain about the state of their economy. I lived on the panhandle for 10 years, all the talk was about the pristine beaches in one breath, and the next breath was we do not have employment and if it would not be for the tourism industry we would be broke. Do not even talk oil relations to anyone in Florida. Governor Charlie Christ was talking about bringing drilling to Florida at one time prior to the oil spill. Surely this would have not happened over night, but I am sure when the word got out the drilling companies were standing in line to obtain their permits and ready to bid on blocks out in the GOM off of Florida. Then the oil spill occurred, as I am sure those thoughts of drilling were shelved and the discussion came to a sudden halt. However, you cannot have it both ways. You cannot complain how much you want to keep everything pristine, you do not want O&G messing up your coastlines, but are the first in line for gas and complain when you don’t have it and yet complain because unemployment in Florida is at one of the highest rates in the US. That is why Florida is broke. Retirees and snowbirds are not coming to Florida any longer to spend their dollars for retirement and vacations because of the hurricanes and not being able to insure their lovely mansions along the Gulf Coast since insurance companies came about indicating they would no longer insure anyone on the beaches. This meant you would have to be self-insured or move out and retire somewhere else. Guess what, the people with money that were coming to Florida decided if I need to live near water, I will just buy something near a lake. Therefore, tourism is now suffering. You need to boost economies and it is not going to happen by selling beer at the beach.

Everything around us has an effect that someone does not like. They cut down millions of acres of the rain forest every year and what does that effect? Does anyone complain how it is affecting people, natives, and animal habitats? Maybe some people are screaming out, but as usual, no one worries about it unless it has a direct impact on the way they are living. It might not affect everyone directly but there is an indirect effect we just may not see it. The drilling may not be seen as good in many people’s eyes, but if people really think about things all around them somewhere, some job is indirectly having an adverse effect on something. I am not a scientist so I cannot debate many avenues but in my opinion, the earth gave us the chemicals and such to work with. We did not order them from planet ZYGON and have it delivered to the ports for us to assume we know what to do and how we are going to handle it. It is not like something we just suddenly got our hands on like Kryptonite. We know the chemicals we have are made right here on planet Earth. They are taken from good ole mother earth herself and made into things we as humans use for our everyday living. It is our responsibility to become more perceptive and aware and learn better ways and methods at how to manage what has been given to us as stewards. Mother Nature has in her own way, knows how to take care of herself. It might take 40 years for her to clean up an accident but she will clean herself up. Now do not take that the wrong way. I am not saying we need to make messes or create disasters expecting our planet to take care of our carelessness. What I am saying is along with our technology and knowledge we can contribute to helping her along in bettering our planet. We just need to accept things will happen, some beyond our control but for those that are in our control become better aware before things happen and be prepared when things do happen.

Lastly, despite what people think about oil drilling many people seem to think catastrophes like the GOM oil spill is something that is horrendously controllable. Well, let me rephrase that. The oil spill is something that will not happen unless caused by man himself. If anyone has any knowledge about O&G then you will know that scientist have proven repeatedly that oil seeps from the bedrock floors all around the world in all our oceans all the time. (Jul 18, 2010 ... oil seeps from the floor of the oceans all around the world everyday 24/7. maybe Obama should put a 6 month moratorium on the floor of the ...
www.nola.com/news/...oil.../oil_seeping_from_gulf_floor_ne.html )

It is really physics, as I know it. You have pressurized compounds below the crust of the earth. The earth is constantly changing. Fault lines are shifting. Life as we would never know it occurs, but life as we wouldn’t expect it happens beneath us everyday just in a different fashion. When pressures reach their capacities and there is nowhere for them to go what usually happens? Like a water hose and water with a tiny hole in it. It will find the weakest point and elevate itself to the point of escape and boom you have seepage. If the pressures are large enough and occur long enough the opening increases and this pressurized liquid will surface. Sure, it might not be what we seen as an oil spill, but it is happening everyday around us. Do you think when a volcano erupts someone just walks over and says “oops the pressure is building we need to vent it by turning on the valve until enough has escaped then we can turn it off? Earth is a living creature just as you and I are. It suffers pains and has to release its frustrations also to rid the pains. It is a growing organism. Maybe not in size but in area that it already encompasses. So believe the O&G might not make things better, but there are many things amongst us that can actually fall into that category. It is simply how like anything, we manage it.

We can change things and go to electric cars or anything else for that fact, but somewhere down the road in our kid’s lifetime and their kids lifetime; there will be something found that is not good about that. A show played last week about the affects batteries had during a crash impact. Was not to promising. Therefore, it does not matter what we agree on or not agree on, something somewhere will eventually have an impact on humanity.

The Blame Game

Last night I got into a discussion and as Peter Griffin from Family Guy stated in a job he took for a news station... "What Really Grinds My Gears" was the fact that someone was talking about the state the economy is in and who is to blame for it. Of course there are plenty people still out there pointing fingers. Following is what I replied as I'm objective enough to know it is not a matter of whose fault it is but whose going to take action to get us back on track.

I think personally that we really need to be passed these pointing fingers of who inherited what from whom and how they got it. If you read history, this sort of reaction to the economy was coming for the last 40 years. It has been clearly stated by every president in a state of the union message. We need to do something, or future generations will suffer. What will we do? They always brought it up, always said where we need to focus but never had any answers and each has simply passed it down.

Despite who is at fault and who dropped the ball and who should keep running, we need to be more focused on what government as a whole will do to cure the issues at hand. Voting to me is an awesome responsibility but if it is merely just a knee jerk reaction to get the public to listen to the promises and the typical election is won by someone who says their interest is that of the populist and the result being voted electoral college which is really a joke in my book since you have no clue who’s voting for the people or for their own pocket book and no one is going to listen, then the general population needs to react differently.

The main issue is not who’s fault it is but reducing the amount government gets toward spending and the lobbyist who continue to fund their own causes leaving we the people groveling in lines trying to show we’re not spoiled, wasted, or the bad omen of unemployment. The focus from main stream politicians should not worry about the Ob-care right now, or other controversial programs that support bogus pork, but it should be full focus on building a better public confidence so companies will have the want to train and put people back to work. Being unemployed is not only hurting the jobless population, it is also hurting business in general and the government. No taxes in, no taxes out. No money made, no product purchased.

Until mainstream realizes that they may be capable of their own expenditures, they are really forcing the typical business to have to support the unemployed also. One way or another someone is paying something for someone who is unemployed.

We need to really get passed the blame game and focus on how to make touchdowns!

Self-Distruction

I understand a lot about technology. I might not be IT savvy, but I do have a considerable amount of knowledge toward what we deal with today, but what I do not get is how upcoming do not seem to get it. We all watch sci-fi. Let us face it we have seen it happen over our lifetime, just was not as bad. We had space movies, and reality taught us to get to the moon. We had Hal the robot who controlled 2001 A Space Odyssey, so we all assumed one day we'll have a space station and we created Skylab. However, why don‘t we ever get it?

We sit around now and complain about jobs. Does anyone not see where we are headed? Maybe not in my life time but at least in my kid’s lifetime, there will be some sort of robotics that eliminates the welfare of an honest days work. We did see i-ROBOT right? Then I forget the name of the movie, but Green something I believe.... but it is where government simply gathered people up and imprisoned them for being around the age of 60 or so. Then they annihilated them and used them for fertilizer. Ok far fetch maybe, but think about it, if Hollywood can think it up and dream it up and we've seen what their sci-fi buddies have created that turned into reality, anything is possible.

My point is doesn't anyone see that the more we progress and I'm not against progression at all but when it affects mankind do we not see now things we're doing daily can progress to the point where we are hurting ourselves. Greed in Corporations will become outdated. Money will become obsolete. So you are getting rich now but one day when you have all this money and a one-world government decides for you that it is worthless and now you will answer to them then what will greed have accomplished?

Those list from the good ole days are true and shed light, but what is next... You kids have it so easy, I remember when we had to take the space shuttle to work just to earn enough to stay alive, and today you kids just beam yourself around the globe and create virtual mistresses to come in an baby-sit y'all. Y'all have it way to easy.

Fiction yes, but to me, it is the future and we just do not realize we are our own worst enemy, and we will eventually self-destruct!